The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1887-08-25


ereditable impulse swallowed out of
sight.
The next day he went about in an
atrocious hCmor, and when in the
course of it a man whom he knew pro-
posed to him to go abroad for couple
of months in his private yacht, he ac-
cepted on the spur of the moment.
They were to sail in week. Once he
called on Miss Asgard, but she was
not at home, and he left at last with
out seeing her.
The two months abroad extended to
three, and it was the middle of Sep
tember before Carter found himself
again at home. He looked somewhat
haggard, and he had, moreover, the
appearance of man who had been
boring himself.
On one occasion the owner of the
yacht ran over to the pier, and while
there he invited a small party aboard.
Carter did not take much interest
in the matter, but he was startled by
hearing a voice-it was that of a very
pretty girl, who had retr0usse nose
under a sailor hat-suddenly exclaim
brilliantly;
Now, if Signor Isolani had only
brought his violin.'
MY dear" rejoined an older voice
rebukingly, "Signor Isoiani would
probably, if he heard that suggestion,
paraphrase Sivari's remark to his
laundering host. Thank you. My
violin does not dine"
1t was certainly Isolani. Isolani,
who, though Carter had of course not
known it, had been giving concerts for
month or two at the various fash
ionable summer resorts, and who hap
pened now to have been included in
this gay little gathering.
The Italian recognised Carter at the
same moment and came gravely
toward him.
He did not seem to take notice of the
curtness of the latter's How dye do?"
Carter saw him watching him with
curious expression in which there
seemed to lurk a question every now
and then.
Towards the close of the afternoon
he chose an opportunity, when Carter
was standing a little apart from the
rest, to address him directly.
You have-pardon me-" he said in
his slow, broken English, mot see
Meess Asgard since you have been
back?"
Carter was silent moment before
he replied:
"No."
1solani still continued to watch him
with that questioning glance. A wo-
man-or even a man less aggressively
masculine than Tom Carter-would
have detected something fine, and
high, and sad in the Italians face and
eyes. He had the perfect naturalness
of his race. There was grave and
quiet seriousness about him, the gen
uineness and quality of which Carter,
would not have been the man to over
look, if prejudice had not taken the
place of what sympathy he could COM
mand for this case.
.'Meess Asgard is beautiful lady"
Isolani went on slowly. 'She is one
of the most noble creatures God has
made. And her uncle too. They have
been the noblest friends to me-" He
paused. 'You will not go again soon
to see Meess AsgardP" he said simply.
''It hurt her that you stayed away.
She loves you very much"
Good God, mani Are you crazy?"
Garter turned a savage face of unut-
terable dismay upon the Italian.
Isolani made little motion with his
head.
Not is true" he reiterated plac-
idly. You knew it; did you not? Oh
yes. She loved you very much. She
never told anyone, | think. No. A
woman like that never does. But |
saw 1t; / knew it. [ loved her myself
AS one may love a Madonna, a saint,
| knew she loved you-yes. And you
loved hers it not so"
Loved her! Carter set his teeth
hard. A still breeze was ripping in.
The sun was going down, and a long
track of shimmering gold lay across
the uneasy, leaping surface of the wa
ter.
The great overmaStering truth that
this was what all these months he had
been fighting against-this, what had
been yearning III his heart-this love
| for Florence Asgard-sprang up in his
soul with the wild thrill and exulta-
| ton of a Gagged thing at last made free.
The sense of all this unutterable
| folly smote upon him like blow.
Idiot that he had been! Could he not
have seen that it was out of the kind
ness of her sweet, womanly heart alone
| that she had befriended MIN? Could
| he not have judged this young man
mere fairly-more honestly? Could
he not have treated him with common
decency? One of those revulsions of
feeling which have, in the moral world,
the effect of the rending of a veil, and
experiencing which it becomes impos-
sible, not alone ever to go back to the
condition of mind which preceded it,
but even to conceive of it, had come
to Tom Carter in that one moment.
He turned toward the Italian with
some confused sense of making amends
some chaotic desire to atone. But
Isolani seemed not to perceive any
such intention. He had evidently ac-
cepted Carter's habitually repellent
attitude as the natural expression of
his character.
''Meess Asgard was i'll, for little
while, he began again.
"Ill?"
"Yes. Not very seriously, think.
would have liked to have gone to see
her good uncle and learn how she is
now, but my engagements here pre-
vented"
Then, for the first time, quietly and
simply as he spoke, that something
high and sad in the Italians face be-
came vaguely apparent to Carter.
Poor fellow! Had he singed his wings,
lowering SO near that kindly light
which had shone on his poverty and
friendlessness? What more natural
than that he should have loved Flor
| ence? He had every reason to love
| her, indeed, as he would love the Ma
donna!
You were with the Asgards at their
country place in the spring, were you
not?" Carter said, trying to keep his
| thoughts from wandering off amid
the Pewildering visions and hopes to
which they had relinouished them
selves, like things gone mad.